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On Dec 4, 5:45 pm, "Roy Roger" wrote:
The Real Cost of US Support for Israel:
$3 billion every year, total: $3 Trillion

Support for Israel has cost America dearly - well over than $10,000 per
American. However the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been extremely costly
for the entire world. According to Stauffer, the total bill for supporting
Israel is two to four times higher than that for the U.S. alone - costing
the global community an estimated $6 to $12 trillion.

By Christopher Bollyn

June 25, 2003

In order to keep the parasitic state of Israel financially alive,
bankrupt America is forced to invade other countries like a robber baron,
taking their riches and cashing them in for Israel.

"Amerika put the lives of its sol-diers on the line when waging
war against Iraq. This war was to secure the future of Israel."

While it is commonly reported that Israel officially receives some $3
billion every year in the form of economic aid from the U.S. government,
this figure is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many billions of
dollars more in hidden costs and economic losses lurking beneath the
surface. A recently published economic analysis has concluded that U.S.
support for the state of Israel has cost American taxpayers nearly $3
trillion ($3 million millions) in 2002 dollars.

"The Costs to American Taxpayers of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: $3
Trillion" is a summary of economic research done by Thomas R. Stauffer.
Stauffer's summary of the research was published in the June 2003 issue of
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

Stauffer is a Washington, D.C.-based engineer and economist who writes
and teaches about the economics of energy and the Middle East. Stauffer has
taught at Harvard University and Georgetown University's School of Foreign
Service. Stauffer's findings were first presented at an October 2002
conference sponsored by the U.S. Army College and the University of Maine.

Stauffer's analysis is "an estimate of the total cost to the U.S. alone
of instability and conflict in the region - which emanates from the core
Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

"Total identifiable costs come to almost $3 trillion," Stauffer says.
"About 60 percent, well over half, of those costs - about $1.7 trillion -
arose from the U.S. defense of Israel, where most of that amount has been
incurred since 1973."

"Support for Israel comes to $1.8 trillion, including special trade
advantages, preferential contracts, or aid buried in other accounts. In
addition to the financial outlay, U.S. aid to Israel costs some 275,000
American jobs each year." The trade-aid imbalance alone with Israel of
between $6-10 billion costs about 125,000 American! jobs every year,
Stauffer says.

The largest single element in the costs has been the series of
oil-supply crises that have accompanied the Israeli-Arab wars and the
construction of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. "To date these have cost
the U.S. $1.5 trillion (2002 dollars), excluding the additional costs
incurred since 2001," Stauffer wrote.

The cost of supporting Israel increased drastically after the 1973
Israeli-Arab war. U.S. support for Israel during that war resulted in
additional costs for the American taxpayer of between $750 billion and $1
trillion, Stauffer says.

When Israel was losing the war, President Richard Nixon stepped in to
supply the Jewish state with U.S. weapons. Nixon's intervention triggered
the Arab oil embargo which Stauffer estimates cost the U.S. as much as $600
billion in lost GDP and another $450 in higher oil import costs.

"The 1973 oil crisis, all in all, cost the U.S. economy no less than
$900 billion, and probably as much as $1,200 billion," he says.

As a result of the oil embargo the United States created the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to "insulate Israel and the U.S. against the
wielding of a future Arab 'oil weapon'." The billion-barrel SPR has cost
U.S. taxpayers $134 billion to date. According to an Oil Supply Guarantee,
which former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger provided Israel in 1975,
Israel gets "first call" on any oil available to the U.S. if Israel's oil
supply is stopped.

Stauffer's $3 trillion figure is conservative as it does not include the
increased costs incurred during the year-long buildup to the recent war
against Iraq in which Israel played a significant, albeit covert, role. The
higher oil prices that occurred as a result of the Anglo-American campaign
against Iraq were absorbed by the consumers. The increase in oil prices
provided a huge bonus for the leading oil companies such as British
Petroleum and Shell, who are major oil! producers as well as retailers. The
major international oil companies recorded record profits for the first
quarter of 2003.

The Washington Report seeks to "provide the American public with
balanced and accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle
Eastern states." The monthly journal is known for keeping close tabs on the
amount of U.S. taxpayer money that goes to Israel and how much pro-Israel
money flows back to Members of Congress in the form of campaign aid.

The journal's website,www.wrmea.com, has an up-to-date counter at the
top that indicates how much official aid flows to Israel. While the counter
currently stands at $88.2 billion, it only reflects the minimum, as it does
not include the many hidden costs.

"The distinction is important, because the indirect or consequential
losses suffered by the U.S. as a result of its blind support for Israel
exceed by many times the substantial amount of direct aid to Israel," Shirl
McArthur wrote in the May 2003 issue of Washington Report.

McArthur's article, "A Conservative Tally of Total Direct U.S. Aid to
Israel: $97.5 Billion - and Counting" tallies the hidden costs, such as
interest lost due to the early disbursement of aid to Israel and funds
hidden in other accounts. For example, Israel received $5.45 billion in
Defense Department funding of Israeli weapons projects through 2002,
McArthur says.

Loans made to Israel by the U.S. government, like the recently awarded
$9 billion, invariably wind up being paid by the American taxpayer. A recent
Congressional Research Service report indicates that Israel has received $42
billion in waived loans. "Therefore, it is reasonable to consider all
government loans to Israel the same as grants," McArthur says.

Support for Israel has cost America dearly - well over than $10,000 per
American. However the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been extremely costly
for the entire world. According to Stauffer, the total bill for supporting
Israel is two to four times higher than that for the U.S. alone - costing
the global community an estimated $6 to $12 trillion.

"The war was all about oil, for the US and Israel"
By pumping Iraq's oil to Israel the Jewish state might become an
oil-exporting country

Plans to build a pipeline to siphon oil from newly conquered Iraq to
Israel are being discussed between Washington, Tel Aviv and potential future
government figures in Baghdad. ... Cutting out Syria and solving Israel's
energy crisis at a stroke. ...
US intelligence sources confirmed to The Observer that the project has
been discussed. One former senior CIA official said: 'It has long been a
dream of a powerful section of the people now driving this administration
[of President George W. Bush] and the war in Iraq to safeguard Israel's
energy supply as well as that of the United States. 'The Haifa pipeline was
something that existed, was resurrected as a dream and is now a viable
project - albeit with a lot of building to do.' ...

James Akins, a former US ambassador to the region and one of America's
leading Arabists, said:'After all, this is a new world order now. This is
what things look like particularly if we wipe out Syria. It just goes to
show that it is all about oil, for the United States and its ally [Israel]..'
...

Akins was ambassador to Saudi Arabia before he was fired after a
series of conflicts with then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, father of
the vision to pipe oil west from Iraq. In 1975, Kissinger signed what forms
the basis for the Haifa project: a Memorandum of Understanding whereby the
US would guarantee Israel's oil reserves and energy supply in times of
crisis.

Kissinger was also master of the American plan in the mid-Eighties -
when Saddam Hussein was a key US ally - to run an oil pipeline from Iraq to
Aqaba in Jordan, opposite the Israeli port of Eilat.

The plan was promoted by the now Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
and the pipeline was to be built by the Bechtel company, which the Bush
administration last week awarded a multi-billion dollar contract for the
reconstruction of Iraq. The memorandum has been quietly renewed every five
years, with special legislation attached whereby the US stocks a strategic
oil reserve for Israel even if it entailed domestic shortages - at a cost of
$3 billion (£1.9bn) in 2002 to US taxpayers.